HTML | DOM MouseEvent buttons Property

Last Updated : 30 Aug, 2019

The buttons property of mouse event is used to return a number. The number indicates which mouse button or mouse buttons were pressed when a mouse event was triggered.
This property is usually used along with the onmousedown event. This property is read-only.
Due to lack of browser support, you may want to look at the button property instead.

Syntax:

event.buttons

Return Value:
It returns a number which represents one or more mouse buttons that were pressed. If more than one button is pressed, like the left button (1) and the right button (2) then it returns 3(1+2).

Possible values:

1: Left mouse button
2: Right mouse button
4: Wheel button or middle button
8: Fourth mouse button or the “Browser Back” button
16: Fifth mouse button or the “Browser Forward” button

Example:

<!DOCTYPE html> 
<html> 
  
<head> 
    <title> 
      HTML DOM MouseEvent buttons Property 
  </title> 
</head> 
  
<body> 
    <center> 
        <h1 style="color:green">GeeksforGeeks</h1> 
        <div onmousedown="WhichButton(event)"> 
            <h2>HTML DOM MouseEvent buttons Property</h2> 
        </div> 
  
        <h2>You pressed button: <span id="demo"></span></h2> 
    </center> 
    <script> 
        function WhichButton(event) { 
            var x = event.buttons; 
            document.getElementById("demo").innerHTML = x; 
        } 
    </script> 
  
</body> 
  
</html> 